What news reports from 1600s tell us about life in Mughal India
Many were read aloud before assembled officials, carrying news from the imperial court to distant corners of the empire.For decades, tens of thousands of pages of these reports, orders and administrative records sat in libraries and archives across India and Britain. One cache was preserved in bundles in the cool, dry basement of Jaipur Fort. In the early 19th century, James Tod, an East India Company official and antiquarian, borrowed a large number of these reports and failed to return them when he left for Britain in 1823.
- ▪Many were read aloud before assembled officials, carrying news from the imperial court to distant corners of the empire.For decades, tens of thousands of pages of these reports, orders and administrative records sat in libraries and archive
- ▪One cache was preserved in bundles in the cool, dry basement of Jaipur Fort.
- ▪In the early 19th century, James Tod, an East India Company official and antiquarian, borrowed a large number of these reports and failed to return them when he left for Britain in 1823.
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What news reports from 1600s tell us about life in Mughal IndiaImage source, Heritage Images via Getty ImagesImage caption, Aurangzeb, carried on a palanquin in this 1775 painting, was the Mughal emperor whose reign remains among the most debated and controversial in Indian historyBySoutik BiswasIndia correspondentPublished5 hours agoWhile Europe was inventing newspapers, Mughal India had its own news network.From the late 16th Century, armies of scribes, agents and secretaries compiled akhbarat - brief news reports on court intrigue, military campaigns, appointments, finances and gossip.Written in Persian on brittle paper in hurried hands, they formed the Mughal empire's information network: part intelligence brief, part official circular, part news bulletin.Hundreds, perhaps thousands,…
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